Sunday, January 20, 2013

Father Tony Flannery on the Cloyne Report – A Tongue the Vatican Must Rip Out and Silence for the Sake of Destroying all Dissent






July 18, 2011

I am writing this on the morning after the Cloyne report, and out of the perspective of almost forty years conducting parish missions around the country.

Cloyne was always an unusual diocese, or to be more accurate, Cobh was.

In the era after Humanae Vitae, when on our missions we tried to soften the rigid implementation of that teaching in the Irish Church, we met more resistance in Cobh than anywhere else.

That Cathedral, with its scrupulous and legalistic bishop (John Ahern) and those six priests houses at the back, was easily the most clerical scene I witnessed in my time.

Men like Tim Sheahan, John Thornhill, Pat Twomey and Denis Reidy were clear and strong in their views, and were unwavering servants of the official Church line on all things. So any dialogue was almost impossible. Certainty was the order of the day.

Curiously, in the seventies, I met with more anti-clericalism in Cobh than in any place outside of Limerick or Dublin. It must be said that the atmosphere in the rest of the diocese was very different, and there were many great priests there, just as there are today, and my heart goes out to them this morning.

Then John Magee was appointed bishop. Why was he appointed? He was clearly unsuitable, and was an imposition from Rome. Was it that they wanted to get rid of him over there, or that it was a reward for covering up the circumstances of John Paul I’s death.

I don’t know, but it was a good example of the terrible policy of Episcopal appointments pursued by John Paul II, which I see as being one of the main reasons for the mess the Church finds itself in today.

He was never fully accepted, and his manner and attitudes were foreign to many of the priests and people. He gathered some kudos by promoting perpetual adoration for a time.

But I remember an old priest, now long dead, saying to me about 1990 that the diocese would reap a terrible whirlwind from the policies of John Magee.

Of course there never was an easy relationship between John Magee and Denis O’Callaghan, because O’Callaghan felt that he should have got the mitre.

So it does not surprise me to learn that a big part of the problems that was revealed yesterday had to do with a lack of communication between the two.

O’Callaghan was too much into power and position in the Church himself, as was obvious from his volte face as a moral theologian after Humanae Vitae came out.

All in all, this sorry chapter highlights a lot of what is wrong with the official Church, and with the Vatican bureaucracy. Will anything be learned? I don’t know. The abuse victims have had their day, and that is good.

And the state would appear to be responding well. The sooner the handling of everything around sexual abuse of children is dealt with by the state the better; and that is why I am no fan of Church bodies or guidelines dealing with it.

It would be much better if anyone who has a complaint in this area did not go to a bishop or a priest, but went to the civil authorities, and let them deal with it.

And if the law is not sufficiently strong to handle the complexity of the cases, then let it be changed. In that way there would be no confusion or cover-up.

In the meantime we priests struggle on.

And I would ask the people of Cloyne diocese today to be conscious of their own priest, and what it must be like for him.

Maybe a word of support or encouragement would help.

Tony Flannery

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Magee_(bishop)


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(One has to wonder if John Magee, like Justin Rigali, before their exiles from the Vatican heard one too many confessions from the fine young studs in the Swiss Guards Barracks, as their chaplains, and knew something someone powerful in the Vatican, a secret, (a dirty little German secret?), that could only destroy clerical careers instead of elevating them? Or it is all just a typical grand Peter Principle job scale thing - Vatican Style?)

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NYC Classic Subway Entrance - IRT Line - City Hall - circa 1904


NYC Classic Subway Entrance - IRT Line - City Hall - circa 1904







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A Yank Abroad – Archbishop Cordileone in England




San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone was recently hanging in London helping rewrite liturgy to welcome women hating, gay hating Anglicans into holy mudder church.

While there he gave a speech at the Brompton Oratory Church, next to the Victoria and (Prince) Albert Museum, a great place to meet tourists, exchange students etc.

Oh to get away from the hustle and bustle of San Fran to save souls in England. A task worthy of a cardinal.

A Father Henry, a simple humble parish priest went to hear the words of the great man Cordileone and gave a perfect, excellent PC review of the speech in his rather extensive blog covering Tradtional church stuff in Europe with pics below.


Abp. Sal Cordileone and  Fr. Simon Henry




Hanging with some friends in Orleans France




Tradtional Rite Church in Orleans



St.Catherines Catholic Church, Stanifield Lane, Farington, United Kingdom (Google Maps)

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Cardinal Dolan’s 2008 $55 Million Cemetery Fraud Reversed by Federal Judge in Order to Compensate Victims of RC Clergy Buggery

Hiding Assets in a Graveyard  to Cheat Victims is both a Crime and a "Sin"


Mafia King Benedict XVI’s chief henchman in the United States gets some push back from the federal court on his infamous attempt to hide assets and cheat victims of child abuse in Milwaukee. 


When he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan chose the dead people, placing $55 million into cemetery trust funds and out of the reach of local abuse victims suing the Church. (They want compensation for the suffering caused by childhood sexual trauma.) Dolan left Milwaukee to take the most visible post in Catholic America -- cardinal of New York City - but he could not escape his choice. The victims asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reverse him, and on Friday she did. For now the $55 million is available to settle hundreds of well-documented cases in which priests raped and sexually molested children and adolescents.  
Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley discussed her decision in court on Friday, explaining that neither First Amendment protections for religion nor federal law protect the archdiocese from her authority. She sided with creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings, who said the main purpose of the 2008 transfer was to place it out of their reach. In fact the archdiocese had managed the task of mowing the grass and otherwise maintaining cemeteries for generations without a $55 million trust generating income for that purpose.


Satanists Want a Piece of Gov. Rick Scott of Florida’s Religious Liberty “Bill 98” Scam Abusing 1st Amendment’s Separation of Church and State



Sinking in the polls like with a millstone tied around his neck, Gov. Rick Scott has signed a bill authorizing optional religious prayers/“messages” to be delivered in Florida’s Tax Payer supported schools.

The Satanists want to promote their agenda same as Scott wants to promote the far right religious agenda on the tax payers dime. Holly-lu-ja.

Florida governor Rick Scott recently signed a bill that promotes religious freedom in schools. Bill 98 gives students "sole discretion in determining whether an inspirational message is to be delivered" at student assemblies, and also prevents school officials from influencing and participating in how these inspirational messages are delivered. …

For satanists, the bill might as well be divine intervention.

"Satan does ask us to do good among each other and follow our own path to happiness as long as it doesn't encroach on others," temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves told the Palm Beach Post. "Faith-based initiatives like this one in Florida gives marginalized religions like ours a chance to be heard. 

"You don't build up your membership unless people know about you," Greaves continued, "so this allows us to get our message out in public. …

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